Congratulations to Frank on the selection of his 2015 Insight Conference presentation! Frank’s presentation (session #3584 for those of you already working on your schedules) is titled, “DB2 ^(Netezza | BLU) = Hybrid Transaction and Analytics Processing (HTAP)”.

As soon as the Insight schedule is released I will update this post with the session date and time. Stay tuned!

In his session Frank will describe and compare the four distinct data retrieval technologies available from IBM, including two Hybrid Transaction and Analytics Processing (HTAP) platforms. Choices are good to have, but how do you choose which technology to apply to a particular business use case? Learn how these techniques differ, including their relative strengths and weaknesses.

– The traditional RDBMS, relying primarily on indexes to speed access

– The new BLU Acceleration columnar compression and memory-optimized database

– IBM PureData System for Analytics (Netezza), which deploys racks of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) processors to parse data

– IBM InfoSphere BigInsights, the IBM distribution of Hadoop

Bio
DB2 Gold Consultant and IBM Champion Frank C. Fillmore, Jr. is the Founder and President of The Fillmore Group, Inc., a Premier IBM Business Partner that specializes in IBM Analytics software sales, consulting, and training. Frank has been providing IBM Information Management solutions to government, industry, and not-for-profit enterprises as varied as The World Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase, Northrop Grumman, and the FBI for over 28 years. Frank’s current practice centers on Hybrid Transaction and Analytic Processing (HTAP) and Oracle to DB2 migrations as well as information governance and integration. Frank kayaks and cheers for the Baltimore Orioles.

Thanks to Kim May and Saghi Amirsoleymani of IBM for the successful two-day IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator (IDAA) Workshop with hands-on lab exercises. Five large financial services enterprises sent attendees. Thanks as well to Al, Allan, Dave, Ed, Jim, Lori, Warren, and Steve for the lively discuss and deep technical questions.

Based on feedback received from System z customers implementing the IDAA, DB2 Gold Consultant Frank C. Fillmore, Jr., will deliver a new course, IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator (IDAA) Administration, beginning Tuesday, September 16, 2014, in our classroom in Towson, Maryland, just north of Baltimore. This 3-day, hands-on course will provide an overview of the IDAA along with instruction and examples of best practices for IDAA administration. This course is intended for System z users supporting the IDAA in production environments and covers query processing, loading data, distribution and clustering within the accelerator, and the IDAA tools ecosystem. Click HERE for the complete course outline.

The cost of the course is $2100 per student. Reserve a seat by contacting me, Kim May, to make payment arrangements. Information on travel to Baltimore is available in our class Welcome Packet. If you are a baseball fan, let me know if you would like to attend the Baltimore Orioles vs. the Toronto Blue Jays game either Tuesday the 16th or Wednesday the 17th – the O’s are hot!

I was on a call this morning with an IBM technical team to discuss our progress filling the seats in one of our upcoming free IDAA classes. Not surprising, given the number of people on the call (and who they were!) we went a bit off topic and ended up chatting about services and what appears to be – to IBM customers and sellers at least – a shortage of skilled consultants available to help with the “tions” – replication, implementations, migrations and federation.

The Fillmore Group has skilled consultants available to support these efforts, at rates that are typically about half of those being charged by “the competition”.

If your team has a project pending, or one in process, where a skilled consultant, at a reasonable hourly rate, can get things back on track, please contact me. We are ready to work! A list of our IBM Information Management capabilities is attached here.

The Fillmore Group has, at least in our opinion, access to some of the best DB2 for z/OS consulting and staff augmentation talent in the world. Need help? Email me!

However, as we heard recently from two successful mainframe customers at a class in Baltimore, finding young IT professionals interested in mainframe-centric careers is really tough. Add to this the challenges in the world of IBM training, and the convergence of the aging z technical teams with the lack of young, skilled talent, and this becomes another factor jeopardizing long-term prospects for the IBM mainframe.

IBM has been trying to address the problem by enabling colleges and universities around the world to use IBM curriculum and remote labs to teach mainframe technology courses.

I spoke recently with IBM’s Don Resnik, who runs the IBM Academic Initiative, and Don re-introduced me to the program and shared some terrific resources. As it turns out, there are three schools on the East Coast offering a mainframe track: Radford in Virginia, and Syracuse and Marist in NY.

This week many colleges are holding graduation ceremonies. If your organization would like to invest in the future of the mainframe, I recommend you spend a few minutes reviewing the information in the Academic Initiative website as well as the website where many students have posted their resumes, and where you can post job openings, www.systemzjobs.com.

As the parent of a college student anxious about his post graduation job prospects, I encourage everyone working with the mainframe to consider hiring a recent grad. It’s a win-win.

We were so pleased with the response to the *free* hands-on IDAA class delivered in Baltimore in April that we’ve decided to do two more in June! Back again, to repeat their successful presentations will be Frank Fillmore and IBM IDAA experts Saghi Amirsoleymani and Mike Hood.

Class is open to any current DB2 for z/OS customer considering an IDAA acquisition, and will provide attendees with the opportunity to test drive an IDAA.

DB2 Gold Consultant Frank Fillmore will present these 2-day, hands-on training classes to introduce experienced DB2 for z/OS DBA’s to the IDAA. Starting with an overview of the unique hybrid technology behind the IDAA, and covering topics including installation, security, and operational management, the classes will deliver an understanding of how the IDAA can quickly integrate into your existing zEnterprise infrastructure and rapidly provide value. Frank will be joined by IBM’s Saghi Amirsoleymani and Mike Hood for sessions focused on the IDAA tools.

There is no charge for these classes, however attendees are responsible for their own travel and lodging. Please note that due to the technical nature of the hands-on labs, there is no distance learning/remote option available for these classes.

A continental breakfast and lunch will be provided each day.

Dates and locations scheduled are below. Click on either session to register. We hope you will join us!

The IDAA class feedback was terrific as the attendees had the opportunity to expand their understanding of the potential use cases and opportunities to use the IDAA to: 1) speed analytic queries, 2) archive rarely used data, and retrieve it quickly, and 3) reconsolidate workloads on System z.

We hosted the class in Baltimore, since it’s our backyard. At the recommendation of the IBM Big Data team, we are planning to host two more sessions in June. The dates are confirmed: June 11th and 12th, and June 25th and 26th, but the locations are still TBD.

If you are interested in attending, the outline is available here, and my email address is here. If you let me know you are interested I will contact you – before the end of April – with the two locations.